now is the winter made gloriously colourful

from the drying lines in the workroom

to one in the hotel bathroom

yesterday i had another big day
and magical colours were produced
in spite of it's being midwinter here

proving that
it is indeed possible to coax brilliance from leaves
without using toxic adjunct mordants
at any time of year [mind you, scrabbling under snow to collect them could put a dampener on things]

the Amazing Marion at Beautiful Silks
has had a new cloth woven
Broadcloth...in a blend of silk and wool.
a bit sturdier to hand than the pure silk
[also warmer] and takes colour very well indeed
as the wool element simply sucks it up
[it's the sample on the right in the blurry bathroom shot]
...get it while you can...i can't find it on the website yet
but if you drop her a line
marion[at]beautifulsilks[dot]com
i'm sure she'll help you!

more detailed images of participants work [from yesterday's class] follow below

dark days

the colours of the dyepot
are reflecting the essence of the season

winterworks

am off to the Winterworks symposium laden with stuffed goodie bags overflowing with nice things.... including silk from Beautiful Silks, chocolate from Green & Blacks and soap from Ovame

the weather is appropriately wintry but the dyepots should keep us warm

there'll be stories when i return... 

magic monday

on pootling into the village this morning to collect the mail from the post office i had a delightful surprise...a sumptuous parcel full of chocolate samples from Green & Black's awaited me.

it appears the company had found me via my website and (well, this is what they said in the accompanying letter) decided i was a "person of taste and style involved in the fashion industry" (clearly they haven't espied me at the end of a day's sheepwork) and sent me their chocolate to try.


and it is delicious. i'm usually strictly dark when it comes to chocolate but must admit their vanilla-infused white stuff is pretty seductive too. they concluded their friendly letter with offers to support future events with yet more yummy samples, fingers crossed they consider WinterWorks (next year's symposium on sustainable textile practice) an event worth supporting!


here's a link to their website, on which they have kindly posted some rather tempting recipes...